Last year, Deutsche Bank achieved its best result in 15 years. However, the salary of bank boss Christian Sewing has increased only moderately: by 121,294 euros to 8.93 million euros. The amount consists of a basic salary of 3.6 million euros as well as short-term and long-term components.

Archibald Preuschat

Editor in Business

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The former head of the fund company DWS, Asoka Woehrmann, receives a severance payment despite investigations against DWS employees on suspicion of capital market fraud. After his resignation at the beginning of June, Wöhrmann received a severance payment of 8.15 million euros from the subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, according to the DWS annual report published on Friday. Stefan Hoops took over as CEO on 10 June last year, but his predecessor's employment contract was still valid until the end of January 2023.

In addition to the severance payment, Wöhrmann received an annual salary of 5.5 million euros including a bonus of 3.1 million euros - 48 percent more than in the previous year. According to the DWS publication, the annual salary of the acting boss Hoops for the period from June 10 amounted to 3.77 million euros.

While Sewing's short-term component of EUR 2.75 million is measured by the personal performance of the CEO, which he has exceeded, the long-term component of EUR 2.58 million also includes the Bank's total performance. On this basis, Sewing can pocket 99 percent of his target total compensation.

This makes him the best in class on the ten-member board of Germany's largest financial institution. The board, which is responsible for the compensation of Sewing and his fellow board members, acknowledged that the CEO succeeded in "positioning Deutsche Bank as part of the solution and advisor to the government in the context of inflationary pressures and the energy crisis," according to the compensation report.

US board member outlier down

But the field is close together. Fabrizio Campelli, responsible for the corporate and investment bank, also earns 6.49 million euros, 99 percent of his maximum achievable remuneration. Sewing's deputy Karl von Rohr achieves 7.27 million euros, 98 percent of his maximum achievable remuneration, as does James von Moltke, CFO and also deputy CEO, whose salary for the past year was 7.07 million euros. Outlier downwards with 95 percent is Christiana Riley, the board member responsible for US business. At 6.16 million euros, their remuneration is the lowest of all members of the Management Board who have been in office for a full twelve months.

However, the board members make up only a small part of the income millionaires. In total, 572 of Deutsche Bank's nearly 83,000 employees worldwide earned more than EUR 1 million last year, 52 more than a year earlier. For the lion's share, namely 299 employees, the annual salary was between 1.0 and 1.5 million euros.

An employee earned between 10 and 11 million euros, but this can also include severance payments, which are included in the calculation like any kind of fixed and variable compensation. Overall, base salaries paid by the bank increased by 2022 percent to 4.7 billion euros in 7, reflecting the increase in the number of employees. At EUR 2.1 billion, variable remuneration remained roughly at the previous year's level.